Charlie Wilson

Stem Cell And Brain Research Institute · Stem Cell and Brain Research Institute

Recent efforts to chart human brain growth across the lifespan using large-scale MRI data have provided reference standards for human brain development. However, similar models for nonhuman primate (NHP) growth are lacking. The rhesus macaque, a widely used NHP in translational neuroscience due to its similarities in brain anatomy, phylogenetics, c...

The functional organization of the frontal lobe is a source of debate, focusing on broad functional subdivisions, large-scale networks, or local refined specificities. Multiple neurocognitive models have tried to explain how functional interactions between cingulate and lateral frontal regions contribute to decision making and cognitive control, bu...

Identifying the evolutionary origins of human speech remains a topic of intense scientific interest. Here we describe a unique feature of adult human neuroanatomy compared to chimpanzees and other primates that may provide an explanation of changes that occurred to enable the capacity for speech. That feature is the Prefrontal extent of the Frontal...

Detailed neuroscientific data from macaque monkeys have been essential in advancing understanding of human frontal cortex function, particularly for regions of frontal cortex without homologs in other model species. However, precise transfer of this knowledge for direct use in human applications requires an understanding of monkey to hominid homolo...

The article ‘In vitro neurons learn and exhibit sentience when embodied in a simulated game-world’ by Kagan et al.1 triggered a wave of positive mainstream and scientific media coverage as well as a widespread negative reaction from the scientific community. Here, we discuss why this negative reaction is legitimate and must be taken seriously. We r...

We apply Dynamic Causal Models to electrocorticogram recordings from two macaque monkeys performing a problem-solving task that engages working memory, and induces time-on-task effects. We thus provide a computational account of changes in effective connectivity within two regions of the fronto-parietal network, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex a...

In this paper, we provide a computational account of changes in synaptic connectivity within two regions of the fronto-parietal network, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the pre-supplementary motor area, applying Dynamic Causal Models to electrocorticogram recordings from two macaque monkeys performing a problem-solving task that engages work...

A critical aspect of neuroscience is to establish whether and how brain networks evolved across primates. To date, most comparative studies have used resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) in anaesthetized nonhuman primates and in awake humans. However, anaesthesia strongly affects rs-fMRI signals. The present study investiga...

Decisions made by mammals and birds are often temporally extended. They require planning and sampling of decision-relevant information. Our understanding of such decision-making remains in its infancy compared with simpler, forced-choice paradigms. However, recent advances in algorithms supporting planning and information search provide a lens thro...

The ability to integrate information across time at multiple timescales is a vital element of adaptive behavior, because it provides the capacity to link events separated in time, extract useful information from previous events and actions, and to construct plans for behavior over time. Here we make the argument that this information integration ca...

Evolution, as we currently understand it, strikes a delicate balance between animals’ ancestral history and adaptations to their current niche. Similarities between species are generally considered inherited from a common ancestor whereas observed differences are considered as more recent evolution. Hence comparing species can provide insights into...

Cognitive deficits as well as disorders of sleep and biological rhythms constitute non-motor symptoms that significantly impact quality of life in Parkinson’s disease patients. Few studies have evaluated the impact of cell replacement therapy on such non-motor symptoms. Here we used a multidisciplinary approach to assess the therapeutic potential o...

Cognitive deficits as well as sleep and biological rhythm disorders constitute the non-motor symptoms that significantly impact quality of life in Parkinson’s disease. Few studies have evaluated the impact of cell replacement therapy on non-motor symptoms. Here we implement a multidisciplinary and multiparametric assessment of the therapeutic poten...

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Evolution, as we currently understand it, strikes a delicate balance between animals' ancestral history and adaptations to their current niche. Similarities between species are generally considered inherited from a common ancestor whereas observed differences are considered more recent occurrences. Hence comparing species can provide insights into...

Although the relative expansion of the frontal cortex in primate evolution is generally accepted, the nature of the human uniqueness, if any, and between-species anatomo-functional comparisons of the frontal areas remain controversial. To provide a novel interpretation of the evolution of primate brains, sulcal morphological variability of the medi...

Although the relative expansion of the frontal cortex in primate evolution is generally accepted, the nature of the human uniqueness, if any, and between-species anatomo-functional comparisons of the frontal areas remain controversial. To provide a novel interpretation of the evolution of primate brains, sulcal morphological variability of the medi...

Non-human primate neuroimaging is a rapidly growing area of research that promises to transform and scale translational and cross-species comparative neuroscience. Unfortunately, the technological and methodological advances of the past two decades have outpaced the accrual of data, which is particularly challenging given the relatively few centers...

TE, echo time; TR, repetition time; PE, phase encoding; RO, read out direction; Reconstructed resolution (RR; mm) and image dimensions refer to the images after they have been reconstructed from the k-space data, the matrix size, and resolution used for the acquisition may differ. For these categories, RO, read out direction; PE, phase encoding dir...

FA, flip angle; TE, echo time; TR, repetition time; BW, bandwidth per pixel; ES, echo spacing; PA, parallel acquisition; PF, partial Fourier (half scan); PE, phase encoding direction; FS, fat suppression; SO, slice orientation; SA, slice acquisition order; Gap, gap between slices; RO, read out direction; Nacq, number of volumes collected; Ndisc, nu...

FA, flip angle; TE, echo time; TR, repetition time

FA, flip angle; TI, inversion time; TE, echo time; ES, echo spacing; BW, bandwidth per pixel; TR, repetition time; PA, parallel acquisition; PF, partial Fourier (half scan); SO, slice orientation; PE, phase encoding direction; RO, read out direction; SL, slice direction. Reconstructed resolution (RR; mm) and image dimensions (RID; px) refer to the...

The sulcal morphology of the human medial frontal cortex has received marked interest because of (1) its remarkable link with the functional organization of this region, and (2) observations that deviations from 'normal' sulcal morphological variability correlate with the prevalence of some psychiatric disorders, cognitive abilities, or personality...

Humans can recall a large number of memories years after the initial events. Patients with amnesia often have lesions to the hippocampus, but human lesions are imprecise, making it difficult to identify the anatomy underlying memory impairments. Rodent studies enable great precision in hippocampal manipulations, but not investigation of many interl...

Humans can recall a large number of memories years after the events that triggered them. Early studies of humans with amnesia led to the hippocampus being viewed as the critical structure for episodic memory, but human lesions are imprecise, making it difficult to identify the anatomical structures underlying memory impairments. Rodent studies enab...

Dopamine is thought to directly influence the neurophysiological mechanisms of both performance monitoring and cognitive control—two processes that are critically linked in the production of adapted behaviour. Changing dopamine levels are also thought to induce cognitive changes in several neurological and psychiatric conditions. But the working mo...

Unexpected outcomes can reflect noise in the environment or a change in the current rules. We should ignore noise but shift strategy after rule changes. How we learn to do this is unclear, but one possibility is that it relies on learning to learn in uncertain environments. We propose that acquisition of latent task structure during learning to lea...

Frontal beta oscillations are associated with top-down control mechanisms but also change over time during a task. It is unclear whether change over time represents another control function or a neural instantiation of vigilance decrements over time, the time-on-task effect. We investigated how frontal beta oscillations are modulated by cognitive c...

The functional and anatomical organization of the cingulate cortex across primate species is the subject of considerable and often confusing debate. The functions attributed to the midcingulate cortex (MCC) embrace, among others, feedback processing, pain, salience, action-reward association, premotor functions, and conflict monitoring. This multip...

The delayed appearance of motor symptoms in PD poses a crucial challenge for early detection of the disease. We measured the binding potential of the selective dopamine active transporter (DAT) radiotracer [(11)C]PE2I in MPTP-treated macaque monkeys, thus establishing a detailed profile of the nigrostriatal DA status following MPTP intoxication and...

In the absence of external stimuli or task demands, correlations in spontaneous brain activity (functional connectivity) reflect patterns of anatomical connectivity. Hence, resting-state functional connectivity has been used as a proxy measure for structural connectivity and as a biomarker for brain changes in disease. To relate changes in function...

This chapter provides an overview of the theoretical bases of meta-learning and presents an example of implementation of a meta-learning algorithm. The chapter argues that the meta-learning framework offers valuable tools to study neural mechanisms of decision making and learning, especially within the medial and lateral prefrontal cortex.

Anatomical and functional studies of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) have identified multiple PFC subregions. We argue that the PFC is involved in cognitive functions exceeding the sum of specific functions attributed to its subregions. These can be revealed either by lesions of the whole PFC, or more specifically by selective disconnection of the PFC...

Electrophysiological evidence in macaque monkeys indicates that when the monkey views a visual scene with objects present in both visual hemifields, the cells of the temporal lobe respond to objects in the contralateral field, but are hardly affected by objects in the ipsilateral field. If visual memories are stored in the temporal lobes, as is gen...

The relationship between anterograde and retrograde amnesia remains unclear. Previous data from both clinical neuropsychology and monkey lesion studies suggest that damage to discrete subcortical structures leads to a relatively greater degree of anterograde than retrograde amnesia, whereas damage to discrete regions of cortex leads to the opposite...

In the macaque monkey, disconnection syndromes can be produced experimentally either by selective section of axonal pathways or by crossed unilateral asymmetrical ablations. Behavioural investigation of the effects of these disconnections gives information that cannot be derived either from clinical studies or from the effects of bilateral symmetri...

Prefrontal cortex (PFC) is thought to have a wide-ranging role in cognition, often described as executive function or behavioral inhibition. A specific example of such a role is the inhibition of representations in more posterior regions of cortex in a "top-down" manner, a function thought to be tested by reversal learning tasks. The direct action...

Both frontal-inferotemporal disconnection and fornix transection (Fx) in the monkey impair object-in-place scene learning, a model of human episodic memory. If the contribution of the fornix to scene learning is via interaction with or modulation of frontal-temporal interaction--that is, if they form a unitary system--then Fx should have no further...

It has been hypothesized that some fornical fibres may instantiate a neuromodulatory reinforcement signal supporting memory acquisition in medial temporal cortical regions. This suggests that fornix transection should impair postoperative new learning more severely than the recall of preoperatively acquired information. Here, postoperative recall o...

The hippocampus has a well established role in spatial memory, but increasing evidence points to a role in nonspatial aspects of memory. To investigate such a role, six macaque monkeys received a bilateral transection of the fornix to disconnect subcortical inputs and outputs of the hippocampus. An additional six macaque monkeys constituted an unop...

Disconnection of the frontal lobe from the inferotemporal cortex produces deficits in a number of cognitive tasks that require the application of memory-dependent rules to visual stimuli. The specific regions of frontal cortex that interact with the temporal lobe in performance of these tasks remain undefined. One capacity that is impaired by front...

The hippocampus has a well established role in spatial memory, but increasing evidence points to a role in nonspatial aspects of memory. To investigate such a role, six macaque monkeys received a bilateral transection of the fornix to disconnect subcortical inputs and outputs of the hippocampus. An additional six macaque monkeys constituted an unop...